Thursday, February 23, 2012

Tonight I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the greatest student-produced show in the history of student-produced shows at Fordham University this month. Cowboys Don't Sing: A Western Musical tells the epic tale of the Old West that you never even knew you desperately wanted to hear---and it tells it in verse. Excellent cast (including the best on-stage horse performances you'll see outside of War Horse), superb set designs, smart comedy, and a rocking band made for one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had in a cramped black box.

I got to play my small role in this soon-to-be-historic production by creating the poster featured above. The creators of the show asked me to do my best rendition of Gary Cooper's High Noon poster from back in the day. It was a ton of fun to work on, and--after seeing the final production--a very gratifying experience to be a part of.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Another every other week, another the paper. Which of course means another installment of the ever-sort-of-popular Superhero Dean Rogers. The media coverage of our favorite bald-headed hero is starting to take a turn for the negative...if the Dean doesn't play his cards right, he may end up under a barrage of more than just literal bullets. Be sure to stop by for more in another two weeks!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

As promised, Andy Warhol is here as the fourth iPad portrait in my series of famous New York City artists (he follows Whitman, Woody, and the Fitzgeralds). Famous for the mysterious, incredibly removed persona that he wore for so much of his career, Andy is still regarded as one of the foremost leaders of the pop-art movement, undermining traditional fine art conventions with ideas of manufacture and celebrity--the artistic merits of which critics are still debating.

Known primarily for his arresting, unapologetic images of a commodified America--from soup cans to famous faces--Andy also produced a great body of film work in his "Factory" studio in New York. Much of it deals with the arguably self-destructive regulars of the Factory (leading some to call into question the ethics of Andy's documenting them; but then again, I suppose it's fitting that reality TV should have a precursor in Andy). In their camera angles and content, the films definitely lean toward the more "inaccessible" realm of medium, but much like Andy's work on canvas, his work on celluloid is hard not to watch.

For Andy's portrait, I wanted to present a man who spent his artistic career reflecting the public rather than channeling himself. He (or rather, his persona) has been quoted saying "I'll be your mirror"---the reflective glimpse he offers being of our own media-crazed, celebrity-obsessed preoccupations. And so I worked to make Andy as compositionally in-your-face as I could, emphasizing not his pallid, expressionless visage, but the inaccessibility of it. Andy's glasses deny us any view of his eyes, reflecting instead the hyper-commercialized world of Times Square around him. (The multiplicity of Cola signs as reflected in his glasses also serves as a nod to the multiplication of images employed in his screen-printed work). The pallor of his face is both arresting and remarkably shallow--there is little physical depth to his ghostly figure, fitting for an artist who was determined to be persona rather than person. And so, in a painting that's all about Andy, we actually see very little of him. We confront instead a constructed figure who is both product of and response to his time.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

After chronicling the baldacious escapades of Superhero Dean Rogers last semester, I've decided to take a slightly different approach this semester in terms of expanding the myth. Rather than omnisciently following Superhero DR through a sequence of linear comic strips, I'm going to be developing a series of loosely-connected newspaper articles which explore the public's reaction to this strange new vigilante. Among other things, it allows me to show Superhero DR in a greater variety of situations and events---like a montage, but in serialized, newspapery form.

Hope you enjoy the first installment, and be on the lookout for more in the coming weeks!